Matthaus Brink and the Mists of Ilvermorny
by Flyboy240
Summary: In the turmoil-filled Reconstruction period, Ilvermorny stood as a symbol of unity. However, dark forces from the recently defeated South stand ready to tear it down and reopen the wounds in the American wizarding world. Matthaus Brink will be faced with a choice: Defend Ilvermorny and his friends, or betray them to take up a dark family legacy.
1. Arrival at Ilvermorny

Arrival at Ilvermorny

Red River Valley, Dakota Territory, 1867

Matthäus Brink stood in the field behind his family's sod house on the windy Dakota Territory plains. It was a chilly early September night. He was waiting for midnight, not that he could tell exactly when that would be. There probably wasn't an actual clock within 30 miles of where he was. Cattle mooed and coyotes yapped. Jack, a large mutt, got up and growled quietly.

"It's alright boy," Matthäus stroked the dog's neck, "The cows are in the barn."

The dog stayed on alert, and began to bark as a stagecoach pulled by skeletal winged horses descended from the sky and landed nearby. The similarly bony driver waved a chalk-white hand and the dog went silent. Matthäus tried to yell, but he had been similarly silenced.

"Howdy, I'm Buck and I'm here to take you to Ilvermorny," The living skeleton tipped a moth-holed hat.

The stagecoach's door swung open. Ilvermorny, Matthäus knew this day was coming but he was still surprised. An owl had dropped off a cryptic letter, and Matthäus's mother had given it to him behind the barn one day. She explained that magic was real, and that Matthäus had inherited the ability. He felt his pocket to make sure the letter was still there, in case he needed it.

His mother, Helga, was a squib, born to a wizard and a muggle woman from Germany. She had hoped more of her children were gifted, but only Matthäus was. He was her youngest child, with two brothers and three sisters. She said that Matthäus's father would understand, and that they would tell the other settlers in the area Matthäus had been sent east to work for a relative, cutting ice in Wisconsin. It was a good enough cover story.

There were three other kids in the coach, a boy and two girls. One girl was pale and freckled, with braided red hair. The other had dark brown skin, matching eyes, and thick, curly black hair. The boy was blonde, and slightly overweight. He was wearing a tan tailcoat, with the matching vest and trousers. He also had shiny brown leather shoes. The girls both wore plain cotton dresses, and no shoes.

The coachman took Matthäus's bag, and motioned for him to get in the carriage. Matthäus climbed in, and took the empty seat next to the boy.

"I'm Matthäus Brink," He said.

"Millie Mae McMillan, but my folks call me Jay Bird," The red-haired girl held out her hand and Matt shook it.

"Sarah Freeman," The other girl said, and Matthäus shook her hand too.

"Thomas Beauregard Smith, you can call me Tom." The boy drawled. He didn't hold out his hand. He kept looking out the window.

The carriage was a curious thing, it seemed to stand still as the ground under it moved. From what Matthäus could tell, they were headed east. Eventually the carriage stopped on a mountain, with a massive granite castle looming above it. It was shrouded in early morning mist. Parked all around the stagecoach were various other magical modes of transportation, including a skeleton in a ruby red suit with a matching top hat. The skeleton set down his calico carpetbag, and four very confused children stepped out. Other children stepped off of magic carpets, flying boats, and other enchanted vehicles.

"Well this is… strange," Matthäus said.

"First time seeing real magic?" Tom scoffed.

"Yeah, the other folk around said my ma's grandma was a witch but I never met her." Millie Mae chimed in.

"My dad would do magic sometimes, before he left during the war. He meant to come back for us but…" Sarah's voice trailed off.

"Explains how he was able to get off the plantation. Believe it or not I'm the first from my family to go to Ilvermorny, the ones that were born in Virginia were tutored at home. But there's new rules for us Southern wizards…" Thomas droned on, and Matthäus stopped paying attention to him.

The students were lined up, and were handed lanterns as they got on the trail that led to the castle. The children walked in silence to the grand gates, massive doors made of old oak covered in carvings. The doors creaked as they slowly swung open. The first year students filed into the grand hall, where the older students were already seated at the long wooden tables. They were wearing blue or cranberry-red robes.

It was unlike anything Matthäus had ever seen. He'd never even seen a building this large, or this many people in one place. It was a bit anxiety inducing, to say the least. The first-years were lined up, and one by one they stood on a gold Gordian knot inlaid in the floor. The wooden statues of the four magical creatures would react when a student that would fit in their house stood on it. Rarely, more than one would move and the student would have to choose themselves.

By the time Matthäus stood on the symbol, he was thoroughly overwhelmed. He waited a moment and watched as both the wampus cat and the curious looking pukwudgie both moved. He started sweating. He was overwhelmed by the whole situation, so he went with his gut.

"Pukwudgie!" He said, and the students at that table cheered. He noticed Millie Mae and Sarah were sitting there already, so he walked over and sat between them. The meal that was served next was extravagant, featuring foods that Matthäus, Sarah, and Millie Mae had never seen before. They ate until they were too full to move, and then some. Sharecroppers and frontier homesteaders weren't used to getting that much to eat. It was also the first time Matthäus used real silverware, and an actual drinking glass.

After the meal the youngest students were led by the headmaster, George Walker, to another hall. In this hall there were more tables, red and blue robes were piled on some and others held wooden wands. They were fitted for robes, and in many cases shoes. The headmaster explained the purpose of wands, as well as the properties of their cores and the woods they were made of. He then instructed the students to stand in a silver circle, and hold out their dominant hand. The first student did so, and a wand flew into his hand. One by one the students received their wands. Matthäus's was a thirteen-inch pine wand with a Snallygaster heartstring core.

The rest of the day was filled with more orientations, introductions to teachers, and a grand tour of the castle and its grounds. Despite not sleeping the night before, Matthäus felt wide awake all day. He wasn't sure if it was from excitement or from something in the food. By the time they were shown to the Pukwudgie common room, the sun was setting and the students began to get tired. The Pukwudgie common room was guarded by a pair of statues, and inside it was warm and inviting. There were three fireplaces, and numerous cushioned chairs set around small round tables. It had a high ceiling, with hovering candles. The floor and walls were covered with lacquered oak.

The boy's dormitory had rows of bunk beds for the first-years, and double rooms for the rest. The mattresses were real feather beds, which was a huge difference from the straw mattress Matthäus was used to sleeping on. The blanket was wool like the one Matthäus had at home, but it wasn't thin and scratchy. His bag and a stack of books and other supplies were sitting on the bed.

"I'm Ole Jensen," a tall blonde boy said, "I've got the top bunk." He had a thick Danish accent.

"Matthäus Brink," he shook the other boy's hand, "Where are you from?"

"I was born in Denmark but we moved to Minnesota when I was young."

"I was born in Bavaria, and we moved to the Dakota Territory when I was too young to remember."

"I'm the first wizard from my family to go to school here, instead of Durmstrang."

"My mother told me the same thing."

"Do you know any magic yet?" Ole twirled his wand in his hand.

"No, you?" Matthäus asked.

"I know a few things from my parents… but we're not allowed to use magic outside of class, and they know if we do." Ole waved his wand around.

"What will we even be learning? My school was just one room and all we learned was reading and arithmetic." Matthäus asked.

"Charms, Potions, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and Astronomy." Ole read from a small piece of paper.

"I don't know what any of that means." Matthäus said.

"We'll learn, that's what teachers are for, yeah?" Ole dropped his wand, and it clattered on the floor.

"Stop playing with your wands," an older boy stopped as he was walking by, "Arthur Bexley, Pukwudgie Prefect. I'm in charge here, and it's lights out." He waved his wand and the candles extinguished.

The boys took that as a cue to get into bed and go to sleep. Sleep came easy for Matthäus, despite this being his first night away from home.


	2. Chapter 2: Introduction to Magic

Introduction to Magic

All first years were required to take three weeks of Remedial Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, because many students from impoverished families were functionally illiterate. Matthäus found the reading and writing portions to be challenging but doable, and arithmetic was never his strong suit so he was grateful for the lessons. When he could pay attention of course, the sheer wonder and oddity of the situation overwhelmed him sometimes.

The first real class was History of Magic. The first-year students got there a few minutes early. The teacher was at her desk, sleeping. Emma Goldstein was a tiny woman, hardy taller than the average first year student, with bushy grey and red hair. Precisely at eight o'clock, a bell chimed and Mrs. Goldstein jerked awake. There was no flowery, exciting introduction. She simply instructed the children to pull out their copies of _A Complete History of Ilvermorny_ , by Silence McCanless, and she read the story of the school's founding. She spoke slowly and monotonously. Matt was relieved to notice he wasn't the only one struggling to not doze off.

At nine o'clock in the morning on that chilly late September day Matthäus, Ole, and several dozen other children made their way down to the Introduction to Potions classroom on the first floor of the granite castle. Enchanted maps had been provided for students so they wouldn't get lost. Matthäus would sometimes spin in a circle as he walked, just to see the triangle that marked his position on the map turn around with him. The classroom had no natural light, but it was lit by hovering lanterns and candles.

At the front of the room was an elaborately carved hardwood desk that appeared to be quite old, and a chalkboard. Standing behind the desk was the teacher. She was tall, lanky, and pale. She had auburn hair and small blue eyes, along with a rather large hooked nose. The teacher wore long, dark green robes and a pointed hat of brown felt. Matthäus sat at a table in the middle of the room, and Ole, Sarah, and Millie Mae sat at the same table. Most of the students tended to stay with the ones they arrived with or their bunkmates.

"Welcome to Introduction to Potions, I am Harmonia Weasley, and I am honored to introduce you to the wonderful world that is practical magic," She put her hands behind her and looked around the room before pulling out a small book and starting a roll call. When she got to Matthäus she asked if she could just call him 'Matt', and he nodded his head. He had noticed the pronunciation of his name being butchered in odd ways, which bothered him more than his name being shortened did.

Harmonia spent the next hour listing off units of measurement, stirring techniques, temperature control, and North American plants, fungi, and animal bits. The students followed along in their copies of _Brews, Salves, Draughts, and Medicines of North American Origin_ , by Wilford Magnussen. Matt recognized some of the plants, but most were new to him. Some didn't seem real, like Eastern Moonberry, which was said to grow only outside the dens of wampus cats. It was a lot of information to take in, and sometimes he got distracted by the moving illustrations in his textbook.

He looked over at Millie Mae, who was several pages ahead of the rest of them. Since she had learned how to read in the remedial class she had her nose buried in her textbooks all the time. Like most of the other students Matt was disappointed they didn't actually get to use magic themselves during the potions class. He had imagined that magic school would be much more different than regular school, but so far it seemed to be the same if not more difficult.

The next class was Charms, and it was taught by William Hornsby, a rotund man with a comically large white moustache. He wore a cranberry-colored suit with blue trim on the lapel and cuffs. His desk and the shelves behind him were covered in mysterious books and instruments. After the class sat down, he waved his wand, muttered something, and the students' school-issued copies of _Chadwick's Charm's_ began dancing a jig on their desks. Some of the students jumped in shock, including Matt. Ole merely grinned in amusement, but he'd actually seen magic being used before many times.

"Welcome to Charms class, my dear children," Mr. Hornsby had a deep, rich voice, "Charms are spells which add new properties to something, such as how I added the ability to dance to your books. By the end of the year you'll be expected to do the same to an apple. I could regale you with theory for hours… however I prefer practical instruction. Take out your wands."

Excited whispers cascaded throughout the room as students pulled their wands out from their schoolbags or under their robes. Matt pulled out his wand, made from a straight grained piece of golden and dark brown pine wood. It was straight and unembellished, and it felt oddly alive in Matt's hand. Somehow it felt just as serious a tool as any axe or shovel Matt had handled at the farm back in the Dakota Territory, despite how light it was. Matt shook a little bit, and he wasn't sure if it was from excitement or trepidation.

"Now, when casting spells correct pronunciation is of the _utmost_ importance. Improper pronunciation can lead to unfortunate side effects," Mr. Hornsby said as he held up his wand. "The first charm I'll teach you is the wand-lighting charm. _Lumos!_ " he said, and the tip of his wand glowed a bright white light, much brighter than a candle. "Repeat it for me, _loo-mohs_ ," He drew out the word to make sure the students knew the proper pronunciation.

"Now you try," he pointed his wand at girl in the front row of desks.

" _Lumos!_ " She said the spell loudly, and the tip of her wand glowed the same as Mr. Hornsby's. She smiled from ear to ear as she waved her wand in front of her slowly.

"Very good, ten points to Thunderbird! And now, everyone else!" Mr. Hornsby was smiling too.

" _Lumos_!" Matt held his own wand in front of him and said the incantation, half expecting it to not work. The tip of his wand glowed, a slightly weaker glow than his teacher and most of the other students' wands. At this point he'd been surrounded by magic for weeks, but using it himself made it all so much more real. _I'm a wizard, a real life wizard!_ Matt thought back to the many dark nights on the farm when this would have come in handy.

Matt looked around the room, and most of the other students were similarly entranced by the spell. A few were just mildly amused, and a couple seemed entirely nonplussed. Thomas Smith was among the latter group.

Transfiguration was the next class, and it was held in a circular room in one of the castle's many towers. Glass cases filled with various normal objects lined all four walls of the classroom. The bell chimed, but the teacher was nowhere to be seen. The students whispered amongst themselves.

"My sister told me if the teacher is five minutes late we're allowed to leave." Matt heard a boy sitting nearby say.

After another minute, the whispering turned into talking, shouting and laughing. Suddenly, the chair behind the teacher's desk transformed into a man. Several children screamed. Matt was immediately interested in the subject, much more so than the other classes so far. He watched transfixed as the teacher turned mugs into bugs and then back again.

"Welcome to Introduction to Transfiguration, my name is Ezekiel Brown," He waved his wand and a moth flitting about near him turned into a piece of chalk, which he caught and began writing on the blackboard with. "The art of Transfiguration requires skill, knowledge, and focus. It can be dangerous if done improperly."

Like potions, this lesson was more about the principles and techniques behind the magic. Matt was disappointed that they didn't get to transfigure anything yet. He imagined how useful such an ability could be, such as turning a swarm of locusts into a gentle summer rain. He wondered if such a thing was even possible, but he also didn't know what wasn't possible with magic.

Lunch was a gorgeous spread of food as usual, and even after a few weeks seeing all that food in one place still shocked Matt. He wolfed down his first plate, then piled more beef, potatoes, cheese, and carrots on his plate before covering it all in brown gravy. As the youngest in a large and not well off family, he had developed a habit of eating very quickly so his older siblings couldn't steal from his plate. Even though that danger wasn't present at Ilvermorny it was a habit deeply ingrained in him.

Millie Mae had her Charms textbook open in her lap, and she read from it between bites, occasionally turning a page. "Did ya' know there's a charm just for fixing eyeglasses? Did ya' know there's a charm, _Slugulus Eructo_ , that makes ya' vomit slugs?"

Ole groaned and rolled his eyes. So did Sarah, before she took her new glasses off and cleaned them with the hem of her cranberry-red robe. She was still getting used to wearing the glasses after the school nurse had them made for her. Matt just nodded along as he shoveled food into his mouth.

Herbology and Astronomy were much like the other classes, a bit dry but imagination-igniting nonetheless. Defense Against the Dark Arts filled Matt with a sense of dread. So far, other than the tale of Ilvermorny's founding, magic had been presented as benign, helpful, and cheerful. The knowledge of the existence of Dark wizards and malevolent creatures made Matt's stomach turn.

The teacher of Defense was Bill Dalman, a giant of a man. He wore numerous amulets around his neck, and each of his fingers had at least one ring on it. His long brown coat was covered in patches, what looked like burn marks, and strange markings embroidered on it. His stories of hunting down dark witches and wizards, as well as various creatures, across Europe and the Americas thrilled and terrified Matt.

On the Saturday after the first week of real classes the first years assembled at the Quidditch pitch, to learn how to fly on a broom. Carina Shock was the school's athletics advisor, and she would be teaching them how to use the magical vehicles, while also low-key scouting for the house Quidditch teams. First years almost never made it onto the teams, but she could at least know which ones to look out for in the future. A group of short, grey-skinned Pukwudgies watched. Something they found funny happened every first broom lesson.

Sitting astride a broomstick was much more comfortable than Matt had expected it to be, until he began to rise above the neatly trimmed grass. After he got about fifteen feet off the ground, Matt discovered he was deathly afraid of heights. Tall buildings and trees were awfully scarce in the Dakota Territory, so he had no memories of ever being more than ten feet off the ground. He stopped rising, and the others continued to gain altitude. He wasn't the only one to be nervous of course, but he was the only one to be paralyzed by fear.

"What, are you afraid of heights?" Thomas Smith drawled as he sneered at Matt.

Matt did not like that at all, and he wished he could go up and hit Thomas in his snooty face. He couldn't reach the other boy… but he realized a spell could. Matt pulled out his wand, which Carina didn't notice because she was busy chasing down a boy who had gone straight up into the air much too fast.

" _Slugulus Eructo_!" A bolt of green light shot out of Matt's wand, and it struck Thomas in the chest.

Thomas tried to speak, but slugs and slime came out of his mouth instead of words. Matt laughed, and a couple witnesses laughed. However, his enjoyment of the situation was cut short when Carmina Shock grabbed him by the ear and dragged him on his broom to the window of the headmaster's office. Matt kept his eyes clenched shut the whole way, until Carmina opened the window and shoved him through.

As Matt stood up, George walker looked up from the piece of paper he was holding in his hand and raised an eyebrow. Carmina somehow managed to step through the small window gracefully. Matt looked around the large room with a high ceiling. Shelves full of books, scrolls, and artifacts covered shelves. On one wall there was a giant map of Ilvermorny and the grounds, with moving Gordian knot symbols with names next to them on it. Matt realized that it was similar to the map he used to find his classrooms, but it showed where every student was.

"Well Carmina, what do we have here?" George folded the paper up and stuffed it back into an envelope.

"This boy used a slug-vomiting charm on another student." Carmina said calmly.

"A slug vomiting charm? Well, why would you do that Matthäus? Be honest, boy." George looked Matt straight in the eyes. There was a hint of disappointment in his voice, which reminded Matt of the times his father scolded him.

"I, uh, don't like being up high. Thomas noticed that and he started making fun of me. I didn't like that." Matt's face turned red and he looked down at his boots.

"Look me in the eye boy, is that true?" George said.

"Yes." Matt replied.

George narrowed his eyes, and Matt felt like George was looking right past his eyes and straight into his mind. "Thank you for your honesty, Matthäus. I cannot let an inappropriate use of magic such as this go unpunished, so you'll be spending a few hours tomorrow helping the Pukwudgies tend to the orchard, starting at dawn."

"Yes sir." Matt mumbled.

"Now, Miss Shock would you mind escorting him to his dormitory?"

Carmina nodded, and grabbed Matt by the ear again. Luckily the Pukwudgie house dormitory was not too far away. The common room was empty, as the third years and older were enjoying a day at New Hogsmeade and the second years were eating their lunch. Matt sat down in a cahir in front of one of the firplaces. Suddenly, the flames rose and the face of a man appeared in them. Matt jumped in his seat and yelled.

" _Guten Tag, Matthäus Brink_ ," The mysterious man said.


End file.
